KARACHI, April 16: The federal government has decided to increase the annual budgetary allocation for the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases to Rs200 million from the next fiscal year (2005-06).
Talking to APP on Saturday, the Federal Health Minister, Mohammad Nasir Khan, said the ministry in particular and the federal government in general was fully conscious of the services rendered by the NICVD to the ever-growing patients, from both Sindh and Balochistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.
He said the government was keen to help it emerge as a state-of-the-art facility in the country.
In this regard, he mentioned that an addition of Rs50 million had already been made in the institute’s funds, bringing the total amount to Rs150 million. This would be further raised to Rs200 million in the next financial year, he said.
The minister said the raise was in the backdrop of the much needed assistance because of the growing reliance of resource-less patients on the institute, where they are provided medical services and assistance either free of cost or at extremely nominal rates.
While mentioning that the facility, actually meant for federal government employees, was catering to all people without any distinction, he suggested the Sindh government to focus on establishing cardiovascular units in all major cities of the province so as to reduce load on the NICVD. Besides, this would also ease the financial burden off the families of patients coming from far-off places.
Mr Nasir also acknowledged the NICVD’s contribution to the training of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, meeting the need for such professionals across the country.
To a query, he said the government had taken upon itself to raise the status of all health care providers especially nurses, who had been promoted from BPS 16 to 17 for the first time.
Similarly, equal attention was being given to improving and streamlining postgraduate training programmes for doctors in all federal government teaching hospitals, he added.
“The idea is to improve the career structure for medical professionals so as to motivate them to serve the country,” he said, while reminding them of the immense facilities available in the developed world, but difficult to be arranged in the country.
The Executive Director of the NICVD, Prof Azhar Masood Farooqui, told the APP that the Sindh governor who last week made a detail visit to the institute agreed to consider training programmes for doctors associated with the Sindh government hospitals at the NICVD besides establishing satellite clinics for heart patients in the province.
The Federal Health Secretary, Syed Anwar Mehmood, mentioned measures adopted by the federal government to improve the working of all federal government health care facilities across the country.
In this regard, he pointed to the special counters established for senior citizens in various federal government hospitals including the NICVD. Similar provision, he said could be introduced at the NICVD for journalists as well.
Later, the institute’s governing body in its meeting under the chairmanship of the Federal Health Minister, Mohammad Nasir Khan, reviewed progress on the ongoing development projects and various financial and administrative affairs relating to the functioning of the hospital, adds PPI.
The meeting was told that two new angiography suites were near completion, their equipment had arrived, and they were expected to start functioning within the next two months at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Karachi.
The meeting was also attended by the Federal Health Secretary and Vice-Chairman of the GB, Syed Anwar Mehmood, Director General Health of Pakistan Dr Majeed Rajput, Executive Director NICVD Prof Azhar Masood Farooqui and others.
It said that the new suites would greatly enhance the capacity of the institute to do invasive and interventional work as well as offer immediate angioplasty to heart attack patients.
The budget for 2005-06 was approved by the meeting, while efforts of the federal health ministry in enhancing the grant-in-aid, from the federal government for the NICVD, was appreciated. The 15 per cent enhancement in salaries for federal government servants announced last year was also approved for the NICVD staff.—PPI/APP
